As Archbishop of New York, O'Connor skillfully brought to bear the power and prestige of his office to bear witness to traditional Catholic doctrine. Upon his death, the New York Times called O'Connor "a familiar and towering presence, a leader whose views and personality were forcefully injected into the great civic debates of his time, a man who considered himself a conciliator, but who never hesitated to be a combatant", and one of the Catholic Church's "most powerful symbols on moral and political issues." [2]

Pro-life advocacy

O'Connor believed in protecting all human life, from the unborn to convicts on death row. He was a forceful opponent of abortion, human cloning, capital punishment, human trafficking, and unjust war.[3][4] Horrified by a visit to Dachau concentration camp, O'Connor was inspired to found a religious order that would serve the unborn and dying and be dedicated to the sanctity of all human life.[5] In 1991 his dream was realized in the Sisters of Life. He assailed what he called the "horror of euthanasia", asking rhetorically, "What makes us think that permitted lawful suicide will not become obligated suicide?"[6]

In 2000, O'Connor called for a "major overhaul" of the punitive Rockefeller drug laws, which he believed produced "grave injustices".[7]

Organized labor relations

O'Connor's father was a union member,[13] and O'Connor was also a passionate defender of organized labor and an advocate for the poor and the homeless.[2] Early in his tenure, O'Connor set a pro-labor direction for the Archdiocese. During a strike in 1984 by 1199, the largest health care workers union in New York, O'Connor strongly criticized the League of Voluntary Hospitals, of which the Archdiocese was a member, for threatening to fire striking union members who refused to return to work, calling it "strikebreaking" and vowing that no Catholic hospital would do so.[14] The following year, when a contract with 1199 still had not been reached, he threatened to break with the League and settle with the union unilaterally to reach an agreement "that gives justice to the workers".[14]

In his homily during a Labor Day Mass at St. Patrick's in 1986, O'Connor expressed his strong commitment to organized labor:

[S]o many of our freedoms in this country, so much of the building up of society, is precisely attributable to the union movement, a movement that I personally will defend despite the weakness of some of its members, despite the corruption with which we are all familiar that pervades all society, a movement that I personally will defend with my life....[15]

Following his death, SEIU 1199, published a 12-page tribute to O'Connor, calling him "the patron saint of working people" and describing his support for low-wage and other workers and his efforts in helping limousine drivers unionize, helping end the strike at The Daily News in 1990, and pushing for fringe benefits for minimum-wage home health care workers.[17]

Relations with the Jewish community

O'Connor played an active role in Catholic-Jewish relations. He strongly denounced anti-Semitism, declaring that one "cannot be a faithful Christian and an anti-Semite. They are incompatible, because anti-Semitism is a sin."[18] He wrote an apology to Jewish leaders in New York for past harm done to the Jewish community.[19]

O'Connor criticized Swiss banks' failure to compensate victims of the Holocaust, which he called "a human rights issue, an issue of the human race."[20] Even when disagreeing with him over political questions, Jewish leaders acknowledged that O'Connor was "a friend, a powerful voice against anti-Semitism".[21]

Relations with the gay community

O'Connor adhered to the traditionalCatholic teaching that homosexual acts are contrary to natural law, intrinsically immoral and therefore never permissible, while homosexual desires are intrinsically disordered but not in themselves sinful. He resisted attempts within the Church to modify that traditional understanding and was frequently at odds with New York's gay community during his tenure as Archbishop.

O'Connor actively opposed Executive Order 50, a mayoral order issued in 1980 by Mayor Ed Koch, which required all City contractors, including religious entities, to provide services on a non-discriminatory basis with respect to race, creed, age, sex, handicap, as well as "sexual orientation or affectational preference".[23] After the Salvation Army received a warning from the City that its contracts for child care services would be canceled for refusing to comply with the executive order's provisions regarding sexual orientation,[24] the Archdiocese of New York and Agudath Israel, an Orthodox Jewish organization, threatened to cancel their contracts with the City if forced to comply.[24] O'Connor maintained that the executive order would cause the Church to appear to condone homosexual practices and lifestyle.[25][25] Writing in Catholic New York in January 1985, O'Connor characterized the order as "an exceedingly dangerous precedent [that would] invite unacceptable governmental intrusion into and excessive entanglement with the Church's conducting of its own internal affairs." Drawing the traditional Catholic distinction between homosexual "inclinations" and "behavior", he stated that "we do not believe that homosexual behavior ... should be elevated to a protected category."[26]

We do not believe that religious agencies should be required to employ those engaging in or advocating homosexual behavior. We are willing to consider on a case-by-case basis the employment of individuals who have engaged in or may at some future time engage in homosexual behavior. We approach those who have engaged in or may engage in what the Church considers illicit heterosexual behavior the same way.... We believe, however, that only a religious agency itself can properly determine the requirements of any particular job within that agency, and whether or not a particular individual meets or is reasonably likely to meet such requirements.[27]

Subsequently, the Salvation Army, the Archdiocese and Agudath Israel, together with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, brought suit against the City of New York to overturn the executive order on the grounds that the Mayor had exceeded his executive authority in issuing it.[25][28] In September 1984, the New York Supreme Court agreed with the religious entities and struck down that part of the executive order that prohibited discrimination based upon "sexual orientation or affectational preference" on the grounds that the Mayor had exceeded his authority.[28] In June 1985, New York's highest court upheld the lower court's decision striking down the executive order.[29]

O'Connor also supported the decision by the Ancient Order of Hibernians to exclude the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization from marching as such under its own banner in New York's St. Patrick's Day parade.[33] The Hibernians argued that their decision as to which organizations may march in the parade, which honors St. Patrick, a Catholic saint, was protected by the First Amendment and that they could not be compelled to admit a group whose beliefs conflicted with theirs.[34] In 1992, in a decision criticized by the New York Civil Liberties Union, the City of New York ordered the Hibernians to admit the gay organization to march in the parade.[35] The City subsequently denied the Hibernians a permit for the parade until, in 1993, a federal judge in New York held that the City's permit denial was "patently unconstitutional" because the parade was private, not public, and constituted "a pristine form of speech" as to which the parade sponsor had a right to control the content and tone.[36]

O'Connor also prohibited a pro-homosexual group from meeting in New York parishes[37]. O'Connor celebrated Mass with members of Courage, a Catholic ministry to homosexual men and women that seeks to encourage them to abstain from sexual relations and live chastely in accordance with church teachings.

HIV and contraception controversy

The Cardinal opposed condom distribution as an AIDS-prevention measure, viewing it as being contrary to the Church's teaching that contraception is immoral and its use a sin. O'Connor rejected the argument that condoms distributed to gay men are not contraceptives. O'Connor's response was that using an "evil act" was not justified by good intentions, and that the Church should not be seen as encouraging sinful acts among others (other fertile heterosexual couples who might wrongly interpret his narrow support as license for their own contraception).[38][39] He also claimed that sexual abstinence is a sure way to prevent infection,[38], claiming condoms were only 50% effective against HIV transmission.[40] HIV activist group ACT-UP was appalled by the Cardinal's apparent opinion that it was sinful for an HIV positive person to use a condom to prevent transmission of HIV to his HIV negative partner, an opinion they believe would translate directly into more deaths.[41] This caused many of the confrontations between the group and the Cardinal.

Cardinal O'Connor considered himself very supportive of those who were infected with AIDS and HIV. Early on in the AIDS epidemic, he approved the opening of a specialized AIDS unit to provide medical care for the sick and dying in St. Clare's Hospital in Manhattan, the first of its kind in the state. He often nurtured and ministered to dying AIDS patients, many of whom were homosexual. Even though he frequently condemned homosexuals (some members of ACT-UP had protested in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral in O'Connor's absence, to protest, holding placards such as "Cardinal O'Connor Loves Gay People...If They Are Dying of AIDS", when O'Connor had been appointed to Reagan's AIDS commission[42]), he would not allow his moral differences to interfere with ministering to them. As USA Today reported, he "washed the hair and emptied bedpans of dying AIDS patients, some too sick to know who he was." Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo once said "No place in the country are they working more aggressively to help AIDS patients than in the archdiocese."

In 1987, O'Connor was appointed to President Ronald Reagan's Commission on the HIV Epidemic, known as the Watkins Commission, serving alongside 12 other members, none of whom were AIDS experts, including James D. Watkins, Richard DeVos and Penny Pullen.[43] The Commission was initially controversial among HIV researchers and activists as lacking expertise on the disease and as being in disarray.[44][45] The Watkins Commission surprised many of its critics, however, by issuing a final report in 1988 that lent conservative support for antibias laws to protect HIV-positive people, on-demand treatment for drug addicts, and the speeding of AIDS-related research.[46] The New York Times praised the Commission's "remarkable strides" and its proposed $2 billion campaign against AIDS among drug addicts.[47] The Watkins Commission's recommendations were similar to the recommendations subsequently made by a committee of HIV experts appointed by the National Academy of Sciences.[48]

O'Connor's tenure earned him the enmity of New York's gay community. O'Connor was a favorite object of scorn and ridicule in ACT UP's demonstrations, the most prominent of which was a protest at St. Patrick's Cathedral on December 10, 1989.[51] Michael Petrelis, a founding member of ACT UP, was arrested along with 110 others. "We will not be silent,", he screamed before his arrest. "We will fight O'Connor's bigotry".[52] Later, he indicated that the group "came to St. Patrick's in 1989 to repel the church's destructive intrusion into public policies concerning AIDS, gay civil rights and women's reproductive rights." [53][54]
The strong feelings that Cardinal O'Connor's campaigning against gay civil rights inspired were evoked at his passing, when Time Out New York, a weekly city entertainment guide, expressed relief at his death, calling it one of the best things to happen to the gay community in 2000[55], saying "The press eulogized him as a saint, when in fact, the pious creep was a stuck-in-the-1950s anti-gay menace. Good riddance!". The resulting cries of outrage forced the magazine to apologize for the insensitive tone of the statement, but Time Out New York stood by its view that the Cardinal was an "impediment to gay and lesbian progress.[56]Carmen Vázquez, a spokeswoman for the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, opined that Cardinal O’Connor had "made the lives of gays and lesbians miserable with his public comments and opposition to their way of life." [57] Brendan Fay, of the Catholic gay group DignityUSA, summarized that "O'Connor will certainly not be remembered as a friend or advocate at our time of greatest need." (O'Connor had issued an order ending Dignity's masses in 1987, sparking protests.[58] O'Connor had Dignity legally banned from attending services in the cathedral.[37] After eight years of protests by the group, O'Connor started meeting with the group twice a year.)[59] Fay continued, saying that the cardinal's famed compassion did not extend to homosexuals. "What we will maybe remember most as representative of the cardinal's stance toward our community is the closed doors of the cathedral."[25]
Jeff Stone, a spokesman for DignityUSA, did note, "We are saddened by his death." [60]

To honor his distinguished service as a US Navy chaplain, the Catholic Center at the Naval Post-Graduate School, Monterey, CA, is named the O'Connor Center. The largest student run pro-life conference in the U.S. is named in his honor. It is held every year at Georgetown University the day before the annual March for Life. [1]

↑ 30.030.1Peddicord, Richard (1996). Gay and Lesbian Rights. Sheed & Ward. pp. 64. ISBN978-1556127595. "[New York City], "the birthplace of the contemporary [Gay and Lesbian Movement] was long embroiled over the issue of non-discrimination legislation. It is no secret that the two most powerful opponents were 'the Orthodox Jewish community and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York'"."

↑Peddicord, Richard (1996). Gay and Lesbian Rights. Sheed & Ward. pp. 92. ISBN978-1556127595. "Cardinal O'Connor has strongly opposed all [gay and lesbian rights] legislation; his opposition is founded on the maxim that one has no 'right' to homosexual behavior."

↑O'Connor, John Cardinal; Edward I. Koch (1989). His Eminence and Hizzoner. New York: William Morrow & Co.. p. 239. ISBN0-688-07928-8. "In the Archdiocese of New York we have been repeatedly quoting studies of condom failure as high as 50 percent."

↑Feldman, Douglas A.; Julia Wang Miller (1998). The AIDS Crisis. Greenwood Press. p. 172. ISBN0-313-287515-5. "In July 1987...Reagan appointed an AIDS Commission that included opponents of AIDS education and was devoid of physicians who had treated AIDS patients or scientists who had engaged in AIDS research. The Commission appointments reflected the influence of conservatives who feared not only AIDS, but homosexuals. In naming this body, Reagan sent an unfortunate message to the public that he did not care enough about the AIDS problem to muster the best scientific information available."

↑Shaw, Randy (2001). The Activist's Handbook. University of California. p. 221. ISBN978-0520229280. "The third and most controversial action involved ACT UP's confrontation with New York's Cardinal O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral on December 10, 1989, likely the most famous action in ACT UP's history. Cardinal O'Connor had been a staunch opponent of the gay and lesbian movement ever since his appointment as archbishop of New York in 1984. He banned the gay Catholic group Dignity from Catholic churches, led opposition to New York City's 1986 Gay Rights Bill, and most important, advanced an agenda hostile to that of AIDS activists. O'Connor opposed safe-sex education in schools and the use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission, and he attacked assertions that condoms and clean needles could decrease the risk of infection as "lies" perpetuated by public health officials. Graphic artists affiliated with ACT UP created a subway poster and placard picturing O'Connor next to a condom under the boldly printed words, "Know Your Scumbags." The caption under the condom read, "This one prevents AIDS."
There was a "widespread belief among ACT UP members that O'Connor constituted a menace to people with AIDS"."

↑Shaw, Randy (2001). The Activist's Handbook. University of California. pp. 222–4. ISBN978-0520229280. "The Cardinal O'Connor action requires more careful scrutiny. ACT UP knew going in that the event would be unlikely to influence its target... Yet...Cardinal O'Connor had injected himself and the church he controlled into a political dispute in opposition to ACT UP's agenda. National media coverage of the action ignored O'Connor's actual role in fomenting anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-ACT UP political advocacy. " Because of the media coverage, "the action came to be perceived as an attack on a religious ceremony rather than on a political advocate. " Factors in ACT UP's decision to proceed with the demonstration despite knowing that the media would side with O'Connor took into account "his vocal opposition to any education about safe sex, AIDS, or condoms in schools," which "increased public health risks. These were political rather than religious stances. Having assumed the role of a politician, the Cardinal became fair game for direct political action. ACT UP could not allow a political opponent to avoid confrontation by disguising his political message as religious teaching."